Journal•ISSN: 0734-306X
Journal of Labor Economics
University of Chicago Press
About: Journal of Labor Economics is an academic journal published by University of Chicago Press. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Wage & Earnings. It has an ISSN identifier of 0734-306X. Over the lifetime, 1318 publications have been published receiving 156356 citations. The journal is also known as: JOLE.
Topics: Wage, Earnings, Unemployment, Efficiency wage, Human capital
Papers published on a yearly basis
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used various micro data sets to study entrepreneurship and found that the probability of self-employment depends positively upon whether the individual ever received an inheritance or gift, and that the self-employed report higher levels of job and life satisfaction than employees.
Abstract: This article uses various micro data sets to study entrepreneurship. Consistent with the existence of capital constraints on potential entrepreneurs, the estimates imply that the probability of self‐employment depends positively upon whether the individual ever received an inheritance or gift. When directly questioned in interview surveys, potential entrepreneurs say that raising capital is their principal problem. Consistent with our theoretical model's predictions, the self‐employed report higher levels of job and life satisfaction than employees. Childhood psychological test scores, however, are not strongly correlated with later self‐employment.
2,218 citations
TL;DR: This article found that married women have lower hourly earnings than married men with the same market human capital, and they economize on the effort expended on market work by seeking less demanding jobs.
Abstract: Increasing returns from specialized human capital is a powerful force creating a division of labor in the allocation of time and investments in human capital between married men and married women. Moreover, since child care and housework are more effort intensive than leisure and other household activities, married women spend less effort on each hour of market work than married men working the same number of hours. Hence, married women have lower hourly earnings than married men with the same market human capital, and they economize on the effort expended on market work by seeking less demanding jobs. The responsibility of married women for child care and housework has major implications for earnings and occupational differences between men and women.
2,190 citations
TL;DR: This article studied the earnings growth experienced by specific immigrant cohorts during the period 1970-80 and found that within-cohort growth is significantly smaller than the growth predicted by cross-section regressions for most immigrant groups.
Abstract: This paper reexamines the empirical basis for two "facts" that seem to be found in most cross-section studies of immigrant earnings: (1) the earnings of immigrants grow rapidly as they assimilate into the United States; and (2) this rapid growth leads to many immigrants' overtaking the earnings of the natives within 10-15 years after immigration. Using the 1970 and 1980 U.S. censuses, this paper studies the earnings growth experienced by specific immigrant cohorts during the period 1970-80. It is found that within-cohort growth is significantly smaller than the growth predicted by cross-section regressions for most immigrant groups. This differential is consistent with the hypothesis that there has been a secular decline in the "quality" of immigrants admitted to the United States.
1,783 citations
TL;DR: The recent rise in wage inequality is usually attributed to skill-biased technical change (SBTC) associated with new computer technologies as discussed by the authors, and the evidence for this hypothesis, focusing on the implications of SBTC for overall wage inequality and for changes in wage differentials between groups.
Abstract: The recent rise in wage inequality is usually attributed to skill‐biased technical change (SBTC), associated with new computer technologies. We review the evidence for this hypothesis, focusing on the implications of SBTC for overall wage inequality and for changes in wage differentials between groups. A key problem for the SBTC hypothesis is that wage inequality stabilized in the 1990s despite continuing advances in computer technology; SBTC also fails to explain the evolution of other dimensions of wage inequality, including the gender and racial wage gaps and the age gradient in the return to education.
1,608 citations
TL;DR: This paper used seven waves of panel data to test for social norms in labor market status and found that the unemployed's well-being is strongly positively correlated with reference group unemployment (at the regional, partner, or household level).
Abstract: This article uses seven waves of panel data to test for social norms in labor market status. The unemployed's well‐being is shown to be strongly positively correlated with reference group unemployment (at the regional, partner, or household level). This result, far stronger for men, is robust to controls for unobserved individual heterogeneity. Panel data also show that those whose well‐being fell the most on entering unemployment are less likely to remain unemployed. These findings suggest a psychological explanation of both unemployment polarization and hysteresis, based on the utility effects of a changing employment norm in the reference group.
1,218 citations